Author name: Steven Edwards

In the UK surface transport is the single largest contributor of greenhouse gases, producing 23% of our emissions, and we’ve made no significant in-roads to cutting that contribution, in a decade. So what needs to change, and are we (and our policymakers) capable of doing it?

Three train carriages have been customised to carry up to 60 bikes on the new ScotRail Highland Explorer service from Glasgow to Oban.

There is space on the carriages for rucksacks and ski bags, limited space for tandems, as well as an e-bike charging socket. Each carriage has a total of 20 bike racks, as well as designated seating for 24 people.
The bike-friendly carriages have been introduced to encourage people to make car-free trips out to the countryside, said Scot-Rail.

 The Welsh Government is exploring making electric car clubs available in all communities, including rural areas.
Deputy climate change minister Lee Waters told LTT that the government aims to balance behaviour change incentives and disincentives, initially focusing on incentives. “For example, we’re looking at how we can roll out electric car clubs to every community.”
Rural areas were part of the aspiration, despite the potentially long distances between a club.

[UPDATED August 9, 2021] The Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change (IPCC) has released its much-anticipated peer-reviewed tub-thumper of a report, and it is bursting with existential horrors. Our planet is expected to hit the critical threshold of 1.5°C warming due to human-caused climate change within the next 20 years, whether or not greenhouse gas emissions are reduced.
Humanity’s role in driving climate change was “unequivocal,” said the report agreed by experts from 195 countries, who were not paid for their work.
“Climate change is not a problem of the future, it’s here and now, and affecting every region of the world,” stated Friederike Otto of the University of Oxford, one of the IPCC experts.

Diederik BaazilJanuary 5, 2021
Walk down a block in any neighborhood of Rotterdam and chances are it will look greener than just a few months ago. Tiles that once lined the front gardens of many apartment buildings, homes and offices have been ripped out and replaced with plants, bushes and trees.
It’s a small but notable shift to the streetscape in a country with an affinity for tiled gardens. And it’s no coincidence this change came en masse. It was part of a green initiative that channeled an age-old rivalry between two Dutch cities.

Highways England has found itself embroiled in yet another row over a planned bridge infilling project.

Engineers, transport planners and the local authority have all hit out at Highways England’s proposal to infill a 156-year-old disused rail bridge in the South Downs National Park.
The chief executive of the South Downs National Park Authority (SDNPA) labelled the plans to infill Stoke Road bridge as “vandalism”, while a spokesperson for the HRE Group accused Highways England of acting like “cowboys and bullies”.
In April 2020, the SDNPA ordered Highways England to apply for planning permission for the work.
However, the roads body subsequently decided that it would carry out the infilling under permitted development rights; which allows temporary works to be carried out without planning permission in emergency situations presenting a serious threat of death or injury.

Birmingham—once, proudly, the U.K.’s “motorway city”—has plans to reduce motoring by making motor vehicle journeys longer and inconvenient. At the same time, journeys by bus, bicycle and on foot will be made quicker, easier and safer.
The city will be split into “segments” and, rather than driving direct, motorists will have to use a ring road for all segment-to-segment journeys. The changes are required in order to achieve carbon targets, says Birmingham’s city council.
Birmingham must “build a future in which the car will no longer be king”, said the council’s cabinet member for transport and environment Waseem Zaffar, speaking two years ago launching the outline plans for the scheme. Firm plans were released today with the start of a public consultation.

Standing in the middle of a usually busy central London street during Extinction Rebellion’s protests, the air noticeably cleaner, the area quieter, I was struck by the enormity of the challenge ahead of us. We need to create a transport system that is zero carbon in only a few years. Despite London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone, the daily reality is still toxic traffic fumes, unjustifiable road deaths and high levels of transport carbon emissions (up to one-third of all emissions in many places). There are over 9,000 extra deaths a year in London due to illegal air toxicity, much of which is from road transport.
But some cities have created more car-free, healthy and safe places. Copenhagen and Amsterdam are known for their amazing cycling culture. Curitiba, in Brazil, has an amazing bus transit system that functions like a subway network. Helsinki has committed to going car-free as soon as possible. Tokyo has some of the lowest levels of car ownership in the world. And Venice hasn’t seen a car in its history.